2/26/15 – Flashback Friday!

#FlashbackFriday In May of 2013, my former a cappella group performed a one hour concert at the CoffeeNook is Oswego, New York. To this day, it’s one of my finest and proudest moments as a musician. One of my favorite tunes from that concert was our opener, “Eight Days A Week,” by The Beatles.

It’s such a fun tune, and our lead, Soup, did such a great job. When I was arranging it, I wanted to keep it simple and barbershop-esque, doing an E5 standard technique; lead melody, the bass line sung by Philli, and the other accompaniment by Ian “The Boy Wonder,” and Anthony, “The X-Factor.” Note in the accompaniment, it’s a pseudo-swing guitar feel, but listen to the voicing. Anthony, the baritone, sings down chromatically, starting the fifth of the D chord, an A, to the G# sharp of the E chord, the third, and finally to the root of the G chord. I’m still proud of that one, and it’s a trick I often use.

In my updated arrangement, which you can purchase by navigating to the link below, I use this idea again, and I also reharmonized the bridge. The features better and smoother voicing, and most importantly, uses contrary motion in the bass part to make it sound like another melody and to draw the ear to that part. I also doubled the melody in the bass, making for a sweet, simple, but punchy sound.

Eight Days A Week (TTBB)